As an interest
group, Flight Simulator users are particularly
blessed. Around every two or three years Microsoft
bring out their latest creation, the latest of
which is known as Flight Simulator X, X being
the tenth incarnation of the Flight Simulator
Franchise. Flight Simulator X was released in
October 2006 which makes it just over a year
old. "Mileage may vary" probably best
sums up how the keen flight Sim enthusiast reacted
to this release. On my Laptop, FSX originally ran
at around five frames per second ( that's right,
five frames per second) which made it unusable.
Then, low and behold having loaded the latest version
of Direct X 9.0c for Windows XP the FPS shot up
to around twenty. Some people who had invested
in lots of aircraft and scenery add-ons for Flight
Simulator 9.0 decided that enough was enough and
just continued to use what they already had.
Microsoft created a Service
Pack 1 for FSX in March 2007 and now having installed
it, My Flight Sim X runs at a respectable thirty
frames. This week Microsoft have released Service
Pack 2 for FSX and while this has not increased
the frame rate, it has made FSX look incredibly
smooth and increased the sharpness of the graphics
noticeably. Service Pack2 is also built into
the Microsoft Acceleration add-on and if you
already have this you don't need to load SP2.
I am now really very happy with the results that
I have. On my main desktop PC which sports an
Intel Dual Core 6850, 2 GB RAM and a Ge Force
8800GTX plus Windows XP Pro., I now get a respectable
50 frames per second with very sharp and detailed
graphics running at 3840 X 1024 on 3 X 19" NEC
90GX2 Monitors supported by a Matrox Triple Head
2 Go. I may ( or may not) upgrade to Vista Home
Premium after Service Pack 1 for Vista is released
in the new year.
Microsoft Flight Sim X is
very good in its own right, however most people
who are keen enthusiasts like to customise the
program with their favourite aircraft and scenery
and controls. Even if you just want to have a "dabble",
a joystick is essential, I rather like the Saitek
Aviator joystick. This sells for just ?24.95
and has the character of a vintage aircraft controller
plus it has two throttle levers and a twist action
for rudder as well as plenty of switches. If
quality is important and the money to acquire
the best is available then the Saitek X52 Pro
and Saitek Pro Rudder pedals have no equal. If
you would prefer a yoke then your choice is either
the CH Yoke or the Saitek one, both are good
reliable products.
So what can you add to improve
the realism of the flight simulation experience
?. If you want to fly in the UK then you might
like to consider a replacement scenery. Both
Just Flight and Horizon create these based on
aerial photo graphs with a resolution of 1.2
metre per pixel and in the case of the Horizon
Scenery 5 metre height resolution . You may consider
that the airports provided by Microsoft with
regards to the smaller provincial ones are not
quite "up to the mark" and in this
instance we expect to get the first collection
of southern airports early in the new year from
Gary Summons . For other parts of the world, you
can improve the height data with a program such
as FS Global 2008. Although this add-on comes in
at around 14 GB of data, it will give an average
height resolution of 78 metres for the whole world.
In some areas such as the Alps the difference before
and after can be as much as 63 times changing appearance
from rounded to craggy. The roads, rivers and towns
in the default scenery are a small fraction of
those in the real world and this is being addressed
in the USA, Canada and Alaska and Europe by the "Ultimate
Terrain" series. By about February 2008, these
will be available to buy.
One of the major limitations
of PC based flight simulation, is the inability
to be able to look around naturally, even a Triple
Head 2 Go display doesn't completely solve the
problem. This issue is largely addressed by Track
IR. The Track IR transmitter receiver sits on
to of your monitor and you wear a clip on a baseball
cap or attach a plastic clip to your headphones
in order for Track IR to work. Track-IR works
by triangulation, IE when you lean forward the
screen image "zooms
in" and you can look left, right and up and down
as well as side to side.
nb: Matrox Triple Head 2 GO is a little box that
lets you span your desktop across 3 monitors from
1 port on your graphic card.
There is a replacement for
the built in air traffic control in FSX. This
is called VoxATC X and a trial version is available
by download from www.voxatc.com and a demo of
this is to be seen on www.youtube.com under "VoxATC".There
is a further video of a short VFR flight between
Bristol International Airport and Bristol Filton,
the video of VoxATC also clearly shows the Track
IR in action, this is on the front page of www.rcsimulations.co.uk.
Just about every aircraft ever made became available
for Flight Simulator 9 either as freeware from
www.avsim.com or as payware. Some of the highly
detailed airliners are so accurately portrayed
that real airline captains use them to review procedures
prior to doing their 6 monthly proficiency check
in their companies simulator!. These aircraft are
now being painstakingly converted to FSX and detailed
Boeing's and Airbus airliners will be readily available
in 2008.
In terms of General Aviation aircraft for FSX,
state of the art is the Siai Marchetti SF260 and
the American Champion Aircraft by Real Air Simulations.
Would be PPLs might like to try Flying Club X which
features Cessna 152, Piper Cherokee, Piper Seneca
Twin and the Piper PA38 Tomahawk. In fact this
add-on actually includes the PA38 in the livery
that I really fly !.
As a special treat for vintage jet fans we even
have a DE Havilland Royal Navy Sea Vixen for FSX
.
Flying with a flying instructor is the way to
improve your flying. If you would like a virtual
flying instructor to point out the error of your
ways then you can also consider FS Flying School,
I think that it is really fun and it even works
with VoxATC !
You can even download the
actual weather anywhere in the world that you
wish to fly ie if it's raining in Bridgewater
you might find that it is sunny in Gloucestershire.
This certainly adds a whole new meaning to, "I am sure it will be alright,
the weathers bound to improve !".
Where does Microsoft Flight Simulator X go to
now?. Microsoft recently announced a new product
called ESP. This is a runtime engine which with
third party content may be licenced for training
and other commercial purposes. This is really quite
significant as until now the EULA with FSX states
that it is for personal use only. At the recent
AVSIM conference which was held in Seattle one
of the most interesting devices was a low cost
motion platform ( low cost is a relative term being
in this instance around ?3500 ex VAT and carriage
). This platform is suitable for fitting with a
chair such as the Gamer seat along with controls
and is capable of moving at up to 2G over a short
range. Take a look at www.d-box.com, look under
gaming and watch the videos and you will see what
I mean, it was great with FSX and totally convincing.
The interface to the simulator was created by Embry
Riddle University. Should anybody be interested
in following this up, R C Simulations is getting
a D-Box platform in. We hope to arrange a day (
TBA) at the Beeches Hotel, Bristol so people can
try it.
Bob Sidwick
RC Simulations |
